Shot In The Dark -
Australia's Kangaroo Massacre

Updated news, 2009, May 16: Another slaughter. A few weeks
ago, the Department of Defence in Australia began to shoot up to
7,000 kangaroos living on the giant Majura military base
in Canberra, ACT. About 3500 to 4000 have already been shot at
night. On May 14, 2009, an injunction was granted by a court to
halt the killing temporarily until further investigations into
the reasonableness of the kill are held. The Chief Minister of
the ACT, Jon Stanhope, says he will try to bring in new
legislation which will allow the kill to resume. But at present
the kangaroos have a reprieve until at least June. This is
another needless slaughter in a country with a miserable record
of wildlife slaughter.

All of the kangaroos in this picture are now dead. At the
top of the picture you can see the netting enclosure where they
were herded to be shot.

Contractors drove about fifty kangaroos toward the kill
area. Few remain, although it is expected roundups of remaining
animals will go on until at least the weekend. It appears that
even the very old animals, with less than a year or so to live,
will be killed - and the youngest as well.

Hey, this is one heck of a BIG contact list!
Still, its size doesn't compare to the millions of kangaroos
slaughtered
annually in Australia. Sure, clicking on a petition is easier...
But we ask
you to take a bit more time to copy each email block into a TO:
or BCC: line
of your email -- to personally send comments. The impact is so
much BIGGER.

The Hon. Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment,
Heritage and the Arts:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memfeedback.asp?id=HV4

AUSTRALIAN EMBASSIES IN COUNTRIES OTHER THAN THE USA:
http://www.dfat.gov.au/missions

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Honorable Officials of Australia:

Australia's assault on its national icon is
disgraceful. In May 2009, the
Department of Defense began to gun down 7,000 kangaroos on its
vast Majura
military base in Canberra, ACT. By 5/14/09, with 3500 already
dead, a
court-issued injunction temporarily stopped the massacre.

Wildlife culls are permitted to take up to
10,000 kangaroos per night. Where
is the Australian government's moral compass? Please stop
authorized culls
and commercial kills. I urge officials to respect and
accommodate indigenous
wildlife with more national parks, nature reserves, and
protected land
corridors for animals to get there.

In Australia, the internationally beloved
kangaroo has become an article of
trade -- to buy and sell by way of violent death. A 4/23/09
Daily Telegraph
report says "tens of thousands of joeys will be decapitated,
shot or clubbed
to death" under government orders to open commercial shoots
across a
generous swath of New South Wales.

The National Code of Practice for the Humane
Shooting of Kangaroos and
Wallabies advises that babies found in a slain mother's pouch be
decapitated
with a sharp blade; clubbed with a metal pipe; or slammed
against a firm
object. Older joeys are bludgeoned or shot at point blank range.

Hunters spotlight kangaroos in the outback at
night. They aim for their
brains, but often miss and leave kangaroos with gaping head and
mouth
wounds. Along with nearly four million kangaroos commercially
killed each
year, hundreds of thousands of joeys die hideously.

I respectfully ask the government to phase out
its consumptive use of
kangaroos and consider eco-tourism instead. Plainly stated,
Australia's
largest known slaughter of land wildlife is sickening.

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